Obama victory good for Canada

Guelph Mercury

Watching the American election results pour in on Tuesday night was an exciting, if at times unnerving, experience for millions of Canadians.

Here was our closest neighbour, tightest military ally, biggest trading partner and, culturally speaking, our continental cousin making a momentous decision that would impact not just America but Canada for years to come.

Yet Canadians weren’t in on the action. Unless they held dual citizenship, Canadians couldn’t vote in these crucial elections and, like a crowd shut out of a rollicking party, were left on the outside with their noses pressed up to the window looking in. What would those darned Yanks do?

But if Canadians were fascinated, captivated and even a tad worried about the process, they can now embrace the result of the most important race of them all, the one for president. The re-election of Barack Obama was the best outcome for the U.S. It should be good for Canada, too.

To many, this seems counterintuitive. Pundits often say Canadians are better served by Republican than Democrat presidents. This rests on the assumption that Republicans are more adept managers of the economy and more open to free trade — both high recommendations for Canadians who know so much of their prosperity is underpinned by friendly American businesses and consumers.

But in the 2012 presidential election, this assumption didn’t hold water. Despite an awesome corporate resume, Republican Romney’s economic plans were like a ledger crammed with numbers that didn’t add up. Tax cuts which would overwhelmingly favour the wealthy, deficit eradication, ramped up military spending and cuts to social services sound to us like a recipe for an indigestible mess. Romney’s plan would add $7 trillion to America’s 10-year deficit, yet somehow it was supposed to balance the books.

This isn’t the way to rebuild the American economy. And because Canada relies so much on trade with the U.S. it would have proven a drag on our economic recovery, too.

In contrast, Obama has been tested by the most trying economic times since the Great Depression. If he didn’t score an A-plus, if the U.S. deficit and unemployment levels are still far too high, Obama’s stimulus programs, his rescue of the American-based auto industry and his Wall Street reforms would secure for the president a solid and passing grade — at the very least a B. Obama knows he will have to take the pruning shears to government spending. But he is savvy enough to know that the only way to balance the government’s books is to accompany the cuts with some tax increases.

Meanwhile, whether you’re American or Canadian, Obama’s approach to foreign affairs beats what Romney offered. The Republican had vowed on his first day in office to declare China a currency manipulator, a provacative proposal that seemed certain to needlessly rile up the world’s second biggest economy. With his plans to hike military spending and project a tougher America abroad, Romney seemed more likely to entangle his country in new conflicts — just like the last Republican president, George W. Bush, who leapt into two wars at once.

Obama got out of one of those wars, Iraq, and is winding down the other in Afghanistan. He struck hard against America’s terrorist foes while reaching out to nations with whom U.S. relations have been rocky — such as Russia, Iraq and North Korea. Success was often elusive. But his efforts bode well for global security.

Four years ago, Americans voted for change and elected Obama. On Tuesday, their previous audacity battered by years of global economic and political turbulence, they voted for the status quo — Obama. Considering his credible performance in exceptionally trying times, as well as the Romney alternative, it is not surprising that 2/3 of Canadians polled on their preference consistently came down for Obama, too.